Base-running Woes Killing Struggling Offense

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The Texas Rangers used to be known as great base-runners. Specifically dating back to the breakthrough 2010 season with Elvis Andrus and Ian Kinsler swiping bases left and right, going first to third and going from second to home on infield singles, the Rangers became known as a team that put pressure on the opponent with aggressiveness on the bases.

Lately, the Rangers have been putting even more pressure on their struggling offense thanks to some terrible baserunning.

There was that awful double play in Toronto when Jurickson Profar strayed too far off of third base to kill a potential big inning, and then came Tuesday night's game against the Cleveland Indians.

Trailing by four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Rangers needed a big inning and had the makings of one when Leury Garcia and Andrus reached base via walk, giving the team their first runner in scoring position on the night.

That was killed abruptly when David Murphy hit a fly ball to left field and for some unknown reason Garcia tagged up to go to third and was gunned down by Michael Brantley on a not-so-close play. An out at third, down four runs. Not a good thing. That made a two-on, no-out situation a two-out one-on situation pretty quickly and killed a chance of making some headway against Cleveland start Corey Kluber.

Profar and Garcia are young, but they can't be making mistakes like that after they get on base when the offense is in a bad way like it is now.